AI engineering glossary · Prompt context engineering
What is one-shot prompting?
One-shot prompting: Giving a model exactly one worked example of the task inside the prompt before the real input. The single example shows the desired format and style. It is a light way to fix output shape when an instruction alone is unclear.
One-shot prompting: an example
The prompt shows one line, 'Input: Rs 5,000 paid to Ravi -> Output: {"amount":5000,"payee":"Ravi"}', then asks for the next SMS.
Related terms
More Prompt context engineering terms
- Outlines library
- Output format specification
- Output parser
- Output repair
- Parallel tool calls
- Plan-and-Solve prompting
- Position bias
- Presence penalty
Where you learn it
One-shot prompting is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.